Oh yeah, the timers are unreal. And from my experience, max level hoards aren't worth the time. They rarely seem to give good items, eggs are close to useless now due to there being no sink of some sort, and the PC isn't that great. Generally 40-60 PC each time, but I can make an evobar in about a day and have it sold off for 200+, so that hoard PC seems pretty mediocre in comparison.

And remember that you gotta factor resting time too. So that another 16ish hours, I believe? Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

I love this game, I really do. It has potential, especially still being so new. But I have to disagree strongly with the idea that this game is anything like a casual game. Casual games are played at your own pace. This is more like being forced to go at slower than a snail's pace, whether you like it or not. Clock-Watching Simulator.

I hope there's some sort of alternative soon, so it isn't just watching and waiting. Its not fun to wait for so long, just to miss an opportunity (like auctions n stuff) or get something mediocre in the end. And by alternative, I mean something better than potions. Even as a supporter, I feel like I have to rely on those far more than I should. It's not a good direction to go, making it like some mobile game.

I feel like having the wait time on hoard be the level divided by 4 would be a much more fair wait time.

People will spend money on games they like, but if they feel like they're being strong-armed are much more likely to just quit out of annoyance.

Hmm, I feel like even if that was the case, it's still a bad game design. Even if it were ignorable.

The thing is, considering the creator of this game also created DragonAdopters, a game that was also really slow-moving, PixPets' slowness in some aspects is kind of what I was expecting, which is why the 'needing to strictly maintain things' is what threw me off when starting here. But I guess for people who didn't come from that come it might make more sense to be irritated? Compared to other games, the gameplay certainly is very slow.

At that point it seems like Pixpet just has some serious balancing issues. If you can buy the SLVL plushies with IRL money currency, or you're very popular and people are always interacting with your pets, hoards are probably a lot more lucrative and not worth complaining about. But for people who can't buy the SLVL plushies with real money and don't have a ton of friends or interact much on the site, the hoards literally just aren't worth it full stop. I've taken to just hatching out new pets and doing hoards with them until their level gets too high, because my higher level pets don't bring me back anything good all they're doing is wasting my time because their SLVL isn't crazy high.

That means hoards aren't balanced properly, if the only way for them to be worth while is to either pay the site money or just be popular. Its kind of a let down and also a really really great way to chase off all but the most dedicated players.

@VampVixen
Yikes, really? An hour a level before sounds absolutely awful. Though I still stick by the fact current wait times are kind of ridiculous.

I imagine it does get better as you get a bigger house and more pets, but it's still seeming like something of a slog to get there. And still, based on the comments by @Valtien and @shepherd, even then it doesn't seem worth it.

@VampVixen You're kind of proving the point of the issue by trying to emphasize that things are just as difficult for you. Where exactly are people supposed to get the resources to fill their houses with nice decor if the hoards they're sending their pets on aren't coming up with anything good? I rarely if ever get deco items and even when I do they're not good. Part of this is because it just happens that most of the pets I like the most have colors that don't have much good furniture for them, another point of imbalance in my opinion.

In order to save up for decorative items without just paying real money it would take ages to have enough to have max SLVL. Auctions are no help because almost nobody has time to babysit an auction for hours at a time, or has the means to plan to be online exactly 10 minutes before it ends and then have to watch it as they get outbid indefinitely for the next hour while the timer gets reset every single bid. I've had my own auctions I've hosted go on for up to two hours after it reached the 10 minute mark just from people trying to snipe each other. I don't have that kind of time, so I don't ever get to win auctions, so all the items I buy have to be found through people's user shops. Which are usually overpriced.

At the end of the day, all of this is a lot of hoops to jump through and takes a really really long time for not much gain, which is what drives away more casual players who can't (or don't want to) spend money on the site. There isn't much of a hook to keep players around besides plants, which outside of pumpkins ALSO take a really long time to get anything out of them, but you're forced to keep coming back just to be reminded of how long its taking every 10-16 hours.

I've said this before in a different thread but, I know the site is new so its not as if to say this entire site sucks or something. The structure IS really fun and the art and gameplay is more unique than average pet sites which is why I'm still here. But the site isn't very active and I'm not entirely sure I'm going to stick around much longer either if things don't change because it really just isn't worth it right now.

@VampVixen

I think the main problem with the rng is that it takes too long, if it were shorter at least there'd be more chances to have another try at it. Though there could probably be some balancing there too.

The potions idea isn't a bad one either, but I don't think it can carry the whole hoard system.

@Kyrie

Mmm, yeah, if there were more ways of actually gaining loot, then it wouldn't feel like such a slog.